On morning rituals
by Trekiael
Summary: written as birthday present for YonderB. One morning, Leon, the investigator of bathroom rules, made a honest mistake.


In all the years he had been working for the Restoration Committee, in all the years he had known Cloud, Leon couldn't honestly remember a time he had seen the blond-haired man without all his clothes. He had never really thought about it before either. Until then.

Really, it had been a honest mistake. He was actually the one who imposed the morning schedule. The house being quite old and not really that big, there was only one bathroom, so to avoid any unnecessary morning fight, they all had chosen their morning or evening bathroom time. Cloud had chosen the one right before Leon, at 7 am.

But being so busy the previous day, Leon had completely forgotten that they had changed hour. So instead of entering the bathroom at 8 like he thought, he opened the door at 7.

And for the first time, he witnessed Cloud's pale, muscular and apparently tattooed back. Surprised and not yet completely awake, he stared for awhile at the black, calm but still menacing wolf covering a great portion of skin. As Cloud shifted, the beast seemed alive.

After a few seconds, Cloud realized he wasn't alone (he certainly realized before but didn't care enough to pay attention), and in this calm, casual way of his, turned around to look at Leon. Large but sharp bright blue eyes stared unblinkingly into their stormy gray counterparts as muscular but surprisingly lean arms crossed over a chest just as muscular but lean (Leon knew of Cloud's strength maybe better than most and would have expected more bulky muscles like his own than dry ones like those, especially from someone carrying such a heavy sword. Those were martial artist muscles.).

"Something you wanted?"

Cloud's voice was always soft like a whisper, and if you weren't looking at him, you could think it came from anywhere around yourself. Definitely male, but not too deep, so that it felt like a breeze. Certainly very nice to hear first thing in the morning, contrary to Yuffie's screeching one who thankfully preferred to shower in the evening and sleep in.

"...Isn't it 8?"

It had taken him a while to get this out. Leon wasn't prone to fast thinking before having drank his coffee and done some light morning training. But though it sounded a little dumb, he knew Cloud would catch on it.

"We changed hour yesterday."

Blunt and straight to the point. Even more so than himself, Cloud was a man of few words, which was one of the reason they got along quite well together while others didn't really understood them and assumed they were just too broody and needed to liven up, which never failed to make Leon angry and Cloud frown. Another reason they got along well together was that even though they teased each other on their fighting abilities (when no one else was around, like a private joke), Cloud never contested Leon's authority. He never voiced any complain, didn't even seem annoyed, when Leon decided on such things as morning rituals, sitting arrangements and couvre-feu.

"Oh. Sorry then."

It was not a very eloquent answer and Cloud just shrugged one shoulder and resumed undressing. Leon realized then that Cloud was only wearing sweatpants and that a shirt was laying on the edge of the sink. When Cloud hooked his thumbs on the waistline of his pants with the full intention of pulling them down, Leon realized two other things: one, contrary to what people may believe, Cloud was not really shy about his body. And secondly, he, Leon, was about to see Cloud completely naked if he didn't leave right then.

His heart skipped a beat and for one second, he hesitated, the thought that seeing Cloud naked might not be such a bad thing crossing his mind. He licked his top lip, eyelids dropping slightly at the thought and heat collecting in his stomach, before coming back to his senses, face heating up slightly, and closing the door. He briskly walked away to the kitchen, willing himself not to think anymore, ignoring his too dry throat and the hammering of his heart. Denial was one of his strong point.

Leon never saw the soft fabric of sweatpants falling on the bathroom tiles, revealing the long legs, firm ass and semi-erected penis. Nor the small smirk on the painfully beautiful face.


End file.
